Issue Position: Honest Budgets

Issue Position

The budgetary gimmicks of previous governors and the constitutionalizing of revenue sources by the legislature must stop.

As chief financial officer of the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office, I worked with budgets for decades. To make a good budget, two aspects are most important: 1) being honest about the revenue and 2) being sensible about spending. From the Department of Transportation to Louisiana Egg Commission and everything in between, it's time to scrub the budget--find efficiency, cut overhead, and give taxpayers the best bang for their buck.

Given the extraordinary number of constitutionally-dedicated funding sources, higher education and healthcare always remain vulnerable to severe cuts. This is just bad management.

Recurring expenses should be funded only with recurring revenue streams. Constitutionally-dedicated funding should to be reduced so that the governor and the legislature have more flexibility to make sensible budgetary decisions. This would include the ability to make across the board cuts. There will be more manageable reductions and less disruption in services if all agencies sustain a 2%-3% cut, instead of a small handful of agencies sustaining 20%-30% cuts. It's the common sense thing to do.

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